Wednesday, September 16, 2009

So I've been thinking about possibly doing a Video Blog once or twice a month, but I'm not sure. I would probably just talk about Druid stuff and maybe real life stuff just to make the blog a little more interesting.

Afterall, if you ONLY wanted druid information you could just go to MMO-Champion... but you wouldn't get my random quirkiness there, now WOULD YOU?

In any case, if anyone has some good ideas for Vlog content, let me know!

Aside from that idea, I'm looking to revamp the blog; it's been while and I've picked up some new Photoshop tips that I want to use! So in the next few days look for a new layout for Barky Bits, as well as a little video tutorial on setting up Power Auras (a great mod for buff/debuff/proc tracking)!

Update: The blog has been essentially redone (obviously). I like to keep things simple... for now this is all I really need to do. I may redo the banner, but for now it'll do. It's 5:30am and I have class at 10:30am

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Friday, September 11, 2009

I live in Northern Virginia, about 20 minutes from D.C. At the time I was a 7th grader and I was sitting in a science class. My teacher left the room for a minute and walked back in, saying something about a plane hitting a building. I was a little scared; it sounded like planes were just dropping from the sky and hitting buildings. It wasn't until I got to my next class (Orchestra) that I saw what had happened.

My teacher, a New Yorker, had the T.V on and was running back and forth from the classroom to the phone. On the T.V I saw the image of the first tower covered by a cloud of smoke. I wasn't sure what to think. I was scared, but still calm.

... until they mentioned that the Pentagon had been hit. My father, a retired Army man, worked with defense contracting with (I believe) Ratheon at the time. I knew that he worked in D.C., but I had no idea if he actually worked in the Pentagon or not. I was still young, so I didn't have a cell phone or a way to call my house without asking a teacher. I worried the entire day until my sister picked me up after school.

"Dad was in the Pentagon."

When she said that my heart stopped.

Luckily, she quickly added: "He's ok."

When my dad got home that night I hugged him harder than I've ever hugged anyone in my entire life. He told me that he had two offices to visit in the Pentagon that day and had chosen one over the other. Had he chosen the other room he probably would have died. He told me how him and other coworkers were standing around the T.V, watching the towers burn.

Then, someone said: "Wouldn't it be something if a plane hit the Pentagon?"

Sure enough, seconds later the plane hit. My dad said that it felt like all the air was sucked out of the building and then launched back at them. Everyone darted out of the building and down the halls as quickly as they could. I was so relieved he made it out safely.

I hope everyone takes a moment of silence today for the innocent lives lost in this terrible attack.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

With the onset of the Fall semester I haven't had much time or energy to post much of anything here. However I didn't really have anything of interest to post, either... I'm in that stage where I'm trying to find a way to make my blog more interesting and useful for you all to read, via guides, theory crafting, etc. I'm also hoping to revamp the page's layout now that I've dabbled a bit more in Photoshop and got some new skills!

So hopefully I'll have some more useful content in the coming weeks once I've settled down with school. Video game design and art classes are stressful!

Blood Elf LF Hooves and Tail

For those of you who haven't seen the news, the faction transfers from Horde to Alliance (and visa versa) are now available for a mere $30; quite a bit earlier than I had anticipated.

When this service was announced a few months ago, I was rather excited. I have a few high level alts that I don't play simply because I don't like the race I picked. Stupid, yes, but if I'm going to spend hours on a character I want it to be pleasing to look at. My Blood Elf Paladin is cute, but I've always disliked the casting animations. When I used to play Alliance years ago I had a level 25 Draenei Paladin that I loved, and now I have the chance to quickly swap over to that race without spending hours of time leveling a new one. Aesthetics aside, I actually have quite a few friends I made in Dalaran via emoting on Alliance side as well as friends from my own faction who made new characters on Alliance that I'd like to play with.

I'm eager to try out the Alliance side of Northrend after being on Horde for all these years. With recent issues it'll be a nice little escape to get away from drama and irritation that comes with logging onto my main.

Some people think this entire service was a bad idea. They think it'll cause server imbalance, bring 'bads' over to their side be it Horde or Alliance, ruin PvP from people swapping races to get the best racials. It's my personal opinion that this was a great idea. There's a lot of people who have been playing since Vanilla WoW and, due to various reasons, had to abandon their older characters that they had put a great deal of time and effort into. Thanks to this service, people can possibly bring those characters back from the grave and play them once again.

What do you think about the service? Great? Stupid? Do you think you might use it?

Friday, August 21, 2009

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Patch 3.2 brought about all kinds of change! While at first I was extremely hesitant about Emblem of Conquest changes, it wasn't until I decided to build up a feral DPS set that I realized how awesome this change was. Doing heroics is a great chance to spend some time with guildies while stocking up on extra badges for those off specs that you've been neglecting. Picking up a DPS set has been great, as it makes doing dailies easier, finding a spot in heroic groups easier, and also makes me a more flexible and valuable raider. Need a healer? No problem. Need a mangle bot? No problem! It's also been great for a change of pace; even I get tired of healing (gasp!).

If you hadn't seen this Restoration Druid idol yet, you'd best put a bib of some sort on or at least put a bucket beneath your mouth because this idol will make you drool. It's essentially a constant free 234 spell power. According to players on Wowhead.com, the idol has no internal cooldown and even procs several times in a row. With Rejuvenation now our main spell for raid healing (especially with the Tier 8.5 4-piece set bonus), more and more set bonuses/idols are giving it even more benefits!

I only have about 15 Badges of Triumph at the moment (I keep forgetting to turn my daily in, 'doh!), but once I get it I'm going to be even more Rejuvenation happy than I am now. Healing has never been so HoT!